Gastric Bypass Surgery

Topic: Gastric Bypass Surgery

Proposition of Policy: People who are morbidly obese should seriously consider undergoing gastric bypass surgery.

Thesis Statement: People who are morbidly obese should seriously consider undergoing gastric bypass surgery because obesity kills and gastric bypass surgery is the only way to quickly and permanently lose a large amount of weight.

I. Attention Step

What do Sharon Osborn, Rosanne Barr, Carnie Wilson, and Al Roker (Tauber) have in common other than fame and fortune? Well, they all used to be morbidly obese and decided to have gastric bypass surgery in order to lose weight. Many of us may consider this a very extreme way to lose weight. However, every year many people are rushing to their doctors to have this procedure. Since the year 2000, the number of gastric bypass surgeries performed in the U.S. has doubled from 40,000 to 80,000 (Tauber) (Fact & Statistic).

II. Needs Step

1. Two out of every three Americans are overweight (Statistic).

2. Fifty percent of the people who are overweight are obese. That is one out of every three Americans (Provost MD) (Statistic).

3. When a man is 100 pounds or more overweight or when a woman is 80 pounds or more overweight, he or she is then considered to be morbidly obese (National Institutes of Health) (Definition by Example).

4. Obesity causes many debilitating, and often deadly diseases like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, asthma, cancer, fertility problems, depression, and anxiety.

5. Once you are morbidly obese, you only have three options: 1) do nothing; 2) change your diet and start exercising; or 3) have gastric bypass surgery.

6. Doing nothing is definitely NOT an intelligent solution because it will only result in death. After all, 300,000 people die every year because of obesity (Statistic).

7. Dieting and exercising seem to be a very intelligent choice.

8. Unfortunately, dieting, exercising, and using medication is unsuccessful in producing sustained weight loss in over 95% of people who are morbidly obese (Provost MD) and one third of the people gain more (Smith) (Statistic). The reason may be that once the weight come off, people tend to revert back to their old habits. It is not permanent.

C. Satisfaction Step

1. That leaves us with gastric bypass surgery, but what is it and how does it work?

2. It is not cosmetic. It is a major surgery that reduces the size of the stomach.

3. (Presentational Aid 1) Normally, food travels down the esophagus to the stomach.

4. In the stomach, the food is digested on a macro level. Some of the vitamins and minerals are absorbed by the stomach and transported into the bloodstream.

5. If there is too much food in the stomach, the excess will be stored as fat.

6. When the stomach is done what it can, the food is released steadily into the small intestines where it will be further digested on a more micro level.

7. During gastric bypass surgery, the stomach is cut into 2 stomachs, with the incision very close to the esophagus. The small stomach that is still attached to the esophagus is called a "pouch".

8. The small intestines are cut completely off from the old stomach and the lower portion is brought up to the "pouch".

9. The remaining stomach and intestines is reattached by connecting the intestines hanging off of the old stomach to the remaining intestines.

10. (Presentational Aid 2) This new digestive system restricts the amount of food the person can eat at a given time.

11. After a person has had gastric bypass surgery, he or she can only eat about 1 ounce of food at a time. After about a year, the person might be able to handle 2-3 ounces.

12. If the person eats too much, it will result in discomfort, vomiting, or diarrhea.

13. With the reduction in food intake, the body will begin to feed off the fat that it has been storing up, resulting in weight lose.

14. As the weight comes off, as many as 96% of the health problems that were caused by the obesity improved or resolved (GastricBypassTreatment.com) (Statistic).

15. Blood sugar levels in 83% of obese patients with diabetes returned to normal after surgery (National Institutes of Health) (Statistic).

16. Some people who